Sarah Jessica Parker Remembers 10 Years of Met Galas

For many, the lead-up to the Met Gala is a flurry of down-to-the-wire preparations. But not for Sarah Jessica Parker. It’s t minus 10 days until the big night, and the actress is busy with work meetings, not wardrobe fittings. “I’ve had a fitting and I’ll have one more,” she says casually over the phone. Parker’s voice has a rare sense of self-assurance that comes with being one of the most seasoned (and consistently best-dressed) guests. While she’s staying mum on who is behind her look, as in previous years, it will be the result of months of research exploring the theme, which this year celebrates fashion and the Catholic imagination.

This will mark Parker’s tenth turn at the event, where she has had a long-standing history of championing the dress code in show-stopping fashion. It all starts with having a design team that puts as much stock into satisfying the thematic requirement as she does. “I always work with people who are equally enthusiastic and want to put in the time and effort,” she says. “It makes the occasion that much more special when you try to really think about that theme and try to live within it some way.”

For Parker, the transformation is all relative, and can range from stark to subtle. “I’ve not been shy about saying that the theme is something I obviously pay attention to,” she explains. “The degree to which I take it changes depending on how literal I want to be, how metaphorical I want to be.” Over the years that has ranged from donning a larger-than-life mohawk in honor of the punk movement to sporting a custom military jacket using inventive embroidery techniques when the exhibit celebrated fashion in the age of technology.

Many make up Parker's personal fashion archive, which is worthy of its own exhibition. Early on in her acting career, Parker's contract stipulated that she should be able to keep her costumes, and yes, that includes her enviable wardrobe playing clotheshorse Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City. “There’s so much that would be fun to share because it’s not just the Met stuff,” she says. ”It’s a nice archive that holds a lot of memories and it’s sort of, for me, a historical document at this point.”

There is no denying that the Met Gala red carpet is something of a sacred place for Parker, who has had her share of otherworldly experiences over the years, many of which are as legendary as they are heart-wrenching. Naturally, she has the fondest, however unfathomable for most, memories of arriving on the arm of the late Alexander McQueen in his-and-hers tartan ensembles, and swanning in wearing a duchesse satin Oscar de la Renta gown embroidered with the designer’s signature in red cursive a few months before his passing. The logo was Parker’s idea, who recalled how De la Renta was wary of name-dropping. “He was shy about it,” Parker says. “I love how it looked, and that I could pay tribute to our friendship and our years of knowing one another. And just seemed so fitting that it was that particular Charles James exhibit, too, which is about foundation and building all those skills that speak so perfectly to Mr. De La Renta’s talents.”But don’t ask her to name a favorite. “Oh I never pick a favorite, never,” she says. “People always ask me to pick a favorite shoe or a favorite outfit or a favorite look, I just don’t do it because it leaves you that much more open to everybody else saying, ‘What are you talking about?’ [laughs] ‘That was a disaster.’”

While Parker has always been among those who rank among the Met Gala best-dressed list, there’s something to be said for those who take the challenge of dressing for a theme head on. “It’s obviously hard to think of a more kind of glamorous—well, no glamorous doesn’t even do it justice," she continues. "It’s a very dramatic, big night, and there’s something really sort of dazzling about those sweeping steps.” While all eyes will be on Parker and what she wears on fashion's biggest night, she will be enjoying the people-watching, which she says is "pretty great," every bit as much as the rest of the world.

“It’s fun to see everybody else and what they’ve chosen to do or how they’ve chosen to interpret the theme or often not care about it at all,” she says with a laugh. “Sometimes I’m like, 'wow, I’m so envious—you just put on a beautiful dress.' And that’s nice, too!”